From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsweepersweep‧er /ˈswiːpə $ -ər/ noun [countable] 1 DHCsomeone or something that sweeps a road sweeper2 British EnglishDSF a football player who plays in a position behind other defending players
Examples from the Corpus
sweeper• Gudni Bergsson is set to play his first game of the season at sweeper.• Dodging between the vinyl booths is Luis Valencia, busily attacking a pile of crumbs with his 3M carpet sweeper.• Their other advantages are warmth and ease of cleaning with a carpet sweeper or vacuum cleaner.• It so happened that the crossing sweeper had blood of the same group as this rich Brahmin lady.• This makes the car feel tardy in quick manoeuvres and exacerbates the variable-ratio's less-than-linear response through fast sweepers.• The Puerto Rican sweepers carried transistors playing Latin music.• Typical occupations were street sweepers, barrow boys, forklift-loader drivers, or labourers.• I wonder if Hoddle will use the sweeper system and/or play. 